Overwhelming Demands

I've always been a teacher.

From bossing my sister around, to sitting on the front steps explaining the story of Moses and the red sea out of my picture Bible to our neighbor—teaching is in my blood.

I leave school to go home and brainstorm ways to make school more engaging for Angel who was falling asleep 4^th period or Louis who won't stop rapping lyrics to songs he shouldn't know. I read articles on the latest strategies to make my tests more fairly show how much Jessica truly knows despite the language barrier. I contemplate a better way to prepare you for your future. I even use “personal” days to go visit other teachers and see what they are doing to make myself better for you.

Yes, I can teach you about World Wars in terms you can relate to. I can show you how to draw a conclusion or give you key words to look for to make an inference. I can give you strategies to craft an argument, making a claim with supporting details. I can even help you connect what we just read to the your life today.

What? You need me to inspire you to achieve? To motivate you to do better? To give you feedback so you can change and grow? To grade you based on actual learning not on behavior? I got you.

Excuse me? So you need me to provide a safe environment, call your family when you are struggling, ask a question in a different way because you really do know the answer? I can do that.

Say that again? You need me to be your college and career counselor to assist you in choosing the best college? You need me to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches stashed in my frig because you didn't eat today...again? You need me to be your mom, to guide you like a father, mentor you like an aunty, to love you like a grandma, to lecture like your pastor, grill you like a drill sergeant and discipline you like my own? I will do that.

I can try my best to teach a child to be the best thinker and articulate speaker AND raise them in the ways they should go, but can I do them all well? Alone?

“ It takes a village to raise a child” But where is this village? My village is busy working 3 jobs because we are in a recession. My village is deployed fighting wars in foreign lands. My village is suffering from PTSD—not just post traumatic stress disorder but prolonged traumatic stress disorder. My village is spinning wheels, trying to take care of their 90-150 students. My village has leadership that is too worried about district meetings they don't get into classrooms to evaluate effective instruction. My village leaders complain there isn't a way to remove the lemons of the town but don't fight hard enough for practices, policies, and funding to make a difference in this village. My village is busy defending themselves against outsiders who don't understand the calling that is teaching. My village needs money. My village needs support. My village needs a doctor, a social worker, a coach, a college counselor, and a therapist.

My village needs a revolution.